Today, Developer Garden - the developer network from Deutsche Telekom and his partner IBM announced a major step: A joint product – Developer Garden powered IBM Worklight. This is notable from two different angles: from a product perspective and also from a strategic view. Let me start with the product view.

IBM Worklight is a mobile_enterprise_application_platform, a so called MEAP. It provides a collection of building blocks necessary for businesses to provide Business to Employee (B2E) or Business to Consumer (B2C) mobile applications. This starts with a development environment capable of supporting all kinds of different platforms up to a server environment that supports the operations of such apps. You can find more details on what MEAPs are and what IBM Worklight is in special here. Worklight is one of the center pieces of the IBM Mobile First product portfolio. So, it provides integration into the rest of the platform IBM is building. But it also can stand for itself as a strategic building block.

Developer Garden powered IBM Worklight combines three things:

First, you get the full wealth of features of IBM Worklight. It starts with the development tools that helps you to easily get started and build apps for a variety of platforms.

Next, we provide additional adapters. This are extensions that abstract services or backends away from you. By simply using them, you do not have to think about implementation details.

On top, you get a pre-installed and fully configured server where your apps can be deployed and managed from, that is handling notifications and messaging towards your app clients and many more necessary features. Even better, we offer great scalability if your apps have specific needs.

Our reasons to choose Worklight

3 Reasons for Worklight

We looked at different MEAP solutions and we deliberately chosen Worklight. From the plethora of reasons, let me point out the top 3.

Reason 1 is the freedom of choice. Worklight provides a cross platform approach by means of HTML5 and Javascript but it does not limit you. When you are using the web or hybrid approach, you are free to chose the framework (jquery, dojo, Sencha, to name some prominent ones). But you can also decide to go native and use the services from your native app. Worklight makes use of standards such as Javascript which also helps to find people for your project.

Reason 2 is the architecture of Worklight. The product can easily adapt new mobile client platforms and can be extended by any means. It uses state of the art technologies and can flexibly cope with all circumstances.

Reason 3 is the strong ecosystem. IBM has a mature and strong ecosystem of partners and customers. We saw even before our launch how big the interest in this product is and we’re able to welcome partners like BLUECARAT and SyroCon right to our joint launch. This is good for you since it strengthens the platform and provides a variety of adapters to chose from. Also, we see IBM investing strong and smart into mobile app ecosystem.

For whom is this offer?

We see currently two parties. The service is interesting for companies that want to step into the mobile app realm. Worklight has build in answers for lots of questions you would otherwise stumble upon in the midst of your development. The way we can offer the service to you minimizes the risk you take and provides an unbeatable price being yet extremely flexible. We see lots of apps in the space of data collection and triggering processes – something that is on the list of all businesses today.

Additionally, we would like to invite service providers and those who would like to become one. If you have a solution right now, use Developer Garden powered IBM Worklight to give it a mobile façade and sell it to customers. Our pricing models support both models and did I mention the unbeatable price already?

We would like to work with even more partners. As a partner you’ll get the opportunity to work with us. You can sell the solutions based on Developer Garden powered IBM Worklight to your customers. We want to be a fair business partner and let you profit from the work you have done. On the other side, we want to support you to offer building blocks such as adapters to back end systems you have done to others. For both models, simply contact us.

Strategic view

Why such a product fits to the
Developer Garden?

Now, let’s have a broader look on the strategic side. First, we can explore why a MEAP is a product in the portfolio of Developer Garden. For us, such a platform is the step into a more holistic portfolio. We develop our API portfolio continuously and will include more features in the near future. On the other side of the spectrum, we have services like App Monitor or Code Analyzer which help developers to increase the quality of their work.. But we see a wide area in between that we want to fill. So, we started with a MEAP to provide a platform to build mobile apps on. But there are platform services around it that we currently investigate in to see how our next step could look like. You will see news from us coming here! Another aspect in the strategic view is, that we have proven once again how successful we can work with partners to build and launch joint products. Something that we are very proud of.

Last but not least, we have written history here. It is the first time ever that IBM offered such a cloud-oriented business model to a partner. We are proud that we have been chosen for this and are looking forward to offer this product to the market.

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Following articles are content of the authors personal site and do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans, or strategies either of Developer Garden or of Deutsche Telekom AG. They reflect only the authors own personal position and the minds of those who have posted comments.